Ian Benedict

I went to see Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck at the Air Canada last Friday. I was down in row 23, pretty close to the stage! Long story short, it was amazing to see both of them live. They both had pretty good individual set lists, and then they played a set together. Speaking about the set list, I embedded set list for the concert at the very bottom.

One song that really stood out to me was Jeff Beck’s cover of “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles. Here’s a video of the song from the same concert I was at.

I’ve found myself starting to appreciate music that I’ve never been interested in before. In particular, I’m really starting to resonate with the Blues style. Not only do I find it very interesting to play, it’s amazing music to just listen to when you want to relax.

As an aside, I also wanted to mention how impressed I am with Windows 7’s Live package of tools. I’m using the Writer right now to update my blog, and it seems to be playing very nicely (so far).

2009 is finally here, though 2008 was pretty good to me. The holidays have ended (already) and the new school semester has begun. I don’t think many of the courses this semester will be too much of a pain so I should have enough time to get back into things like Kendo and guitar practice. As for new year’s resolutions, I think I’ll go with the general self-betterment plan this time around. I haven’t really had much to reflect upon this past year, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to aim to become a better person.

I’ve picked up a few things over the break. I got a brand new high definition monitor from BenQ. It is the E2200HD model to be exact. It supports up to 1080p which is ideal for my Xbox 360. I’ve been rediscovering all of the games in my collection in glorious high definition. It’s also pretty stunning to see anime in high definition. I also picked up a copy of Watchmen, the graphic novel that I’ve heard so much about but have yet to read. I’ve been going through that at a steady pace.

Also, after playing through Persona 4 on PS2, I have to say that the soundtrack for this game is very well done. I find myself listening to it a lot during my commutes. Sometimes, even more so than my regular stuff. I guess it goes to show that sometimes art can transcend the medium.

Here’s hoping for a happy and healthy 2009!

Well, midterms are finally over and I have a bit of free time at last.

Kendo has been going well so far. I’ve been a bit disappointed with my lack of stamina during the last couple of practices, but I intend to rectify it quickly with a lot of cardiovascular exercise. As well, the skin has started peeling from under my feet, so I guess my initiation into Kendo is slowly beginning. Other than that, practices have been pretty fun so far. I’ve been contemplating whether to look into getting my Gi and Hakama around now or wait till the end of the semester.

Guitar practice is slowly coming along as well. I’ve decided to stop randomly playing riffs from different songs and work on mastering the basic techniques. Some of the techniques I’m working on include things like vibrato, legato, palm muting, etc. For the record, if you’re looking into learning to play the guitar, I highly recommend John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline DVD. It’s very good at putting you on the right track to becoming an expert guitar player.

In other news, it seems that Nine Inch Nails has released a new album called Ghosts I-IV. Now, I haven’t really heard much from them in the past but I’m fairly interested in this release. More specifically, I’m interested in how they’re releasing the album. They’ve decided that they’re going to release the first of the 4 CD set, which contains 9 tracks, for free for people to download and enjoy. If you are interested in buying the album, you can pay $5 and download all 4 discs containing 36 tracks in total. Both downloads come complete with album artwork and some extras like wallpapers and avatars. NIN isn’t the first to try this method of content delivery, with Radiohead being the innovators here with their album In Rainbows where they let you pay whatever you felt the album was worth, even if it meant you paid nothing. Personally, I think $5 is a steal for a full album and that NIN is definitely on the right track to finding the right balance for the cost of music.